June 23, 2013

crostata di prugne lussemburghese / Luxembourg plum tart

In Luxembourg, we'll have dessert, I said to myself. As I have never been to Luxembourg, I had to rely on information gleaned from the web to find a suitable candidate for the position. The Quetschentaart (plum tart) on the wikipedia page dedicated to the cuisine of Luxembourg looked like a perfect dish to celebrate our virtual visit to the small European state with a long history, the only remaining grand duchy.

A bit of research returned a couple of recipes for this dessert (also called Quetschenflued). One was repeated in several places and another looked quite different and very much like an Italian crostata. (Some time ago, I made a crostata with plums and a fromage blanc cream covering the fruit.) I went with the first one.

The chosen recipe was intriguing for two reasons:

it used a yeasted dough for the base, something quite different from the crumbly pasta frolla we use in Italy to make crostata, and

it called for just fruit as topping, something quite appealing to my unsweet tooth.

I am always a bit worried when I try a yeasted recipe from an unverified source: this one worked out fine, after I made a few adjustments and, most importantly, applied the conversion from fresh to instant yeast. In this file, the recipe mentions yeast, which I interpreted to mean fresh yeast (lievito di birra). On this page, the amount of yeast is given as "12 g active, dried, yeast," which is an enormous quantity of yeast for 250 g of flour and so an obvious mistake. So you see why I am wary of anonymous recipes for baked goods? (Also note that the video on the same page does not show the tart of the recipe.)

4.8 g instant yeast [I have a precision scale to weigh small amount of ingredients, like yeast]

40 g sugar

125 ml lukewarm milk

A pinch of sea salt

42 g (3 tablespoons / 1.5 oz.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg

Ingredients for the topping:

A mixture of red and black plums, ripe but firm, enough to cover the surface of the tart; the original recipe calls for Damson plums, which "are relatively small plums with a distinctive, somewhat astringent taste" (source); I went with the California-grown varieties that are available now

Vanilla-flavored powdered sugar, to taste

Sift flours into a bowl and warm it up slightly in the microwave.

Add all the other ingredients to the flour and mix with a wooden or silicone spoon until a smooth dough forms. The dough is soft and sticky. I did not try to knead it by hand, but mixed it well with the spoon. Cover the bowl tightly and let the dough rise for 40 minutes or so (until a dimple made on the dough with your fingertip persists).

the first rendition

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Butter a Pyrex pie plate (9.5-inch / 24 cm diameter). Transfer the dough to the pie plate and flatten it using your hands until it covers the bottom and comes up the sides about one inch (2.5 cm). While this method may not make a perfectly even base for the tart, it is easier and less messy than trying to roll the dough and then transfer it to the pie plate.

Cut each plum into 6-8 pieces, depending on the size. Remove the stone. Distribute the pieces on the dough in a circular pattern covering it all. See the Note below about my experiments with cut side down or up placement.

Place the pie plate in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, then check the tart and gauge the time remaining. Bake until the pastry is cooked through and the surface is light golden (you will be able to check the color around the border). In my case it took 32 minutes. Be careful: you want the tart's bottom of a golden color and not to become brown.

Take the pie plate out of the oven and place on a rack to cool. Sprinkle the tart with powdered sugar before serving.

The slight tart flavor of plums contrasts with the lightly sweet crust. My vanilla ice cream (gelato alla vaniglia), with its creamy texture, goes well with the tart.

unstable equilibrium

Note: The first time I made the tart, I halved the plums and placed them cut side down on the dough. When removing the stone was not easy, I cut the plums into quarters. While this configuration looked nice, when I served the tart, I realized that the halved plums made it difficult to cut the tart neatly, so the second time I made the tart, I cut the fruits into 6-8 pieces.

For this rendition, I used pluots (complex hybrids of plum and apricot with predominantly plum characteristics) and, to match the photo on the Quetschentaart's page, I distributed the fruit pieces cut side up. I ran out of pluots, so for the outermost circle, I used peaches.

a disappointing top over a good base

The result, while pretty, was not good: the baked pluots tasted bitter. I suspect the reason had to do in part with the variety of pluots (whose name unfortunately I don't remember) and the fact that they were a bit soft (rather than firm). I also wondered whether placing the fruit cut side up worsened the situation.

So, for the third rendition, I went back to a mix of red and black plums, ripe but firm, and distributed half of them cut side down and the rest cut side up (see top photo). The panel of tasters assembled around our dining table did not detect an important difference between the fruit placed in different position. However, as you can see from the photo, the powdered sugar that lands on plum skin sticks, while the one that lands on plum flesh tends to be absorbed, so the placement has an impact on the tart's look. Honestly, I love the mixed design, which reminds me of the roofs of a mountain village after a light snow.

In case you are wondering about the fate of rendition number 2, the disappointing one, rest assured I saved what I could. Since the problem was the fruit, I spooned it off. I then cut the base into cubes and used it to make the Vanilla Bean Bread Pudding mentioned in this post instead of bread: the result was lovely.

Comments

In Luxembourg, we'll have dessert, I said to myself. As I have never been to Luxembourg, I had to rely on information gleaned from the web to find a suitable candidate for the position. The Quetschentaart (plum tart) on the wikipedia page dedicated to the cuisine of Luxembourg looked like a perfect dish to celebrate our virtual visit to the small European state with a long history, the only remaining grand duchy.

A bit of research returned a couple of recipes for this dessert (also called Quetschenflued). One was repeated in several places and another looked quite different and very much like an Italian crostata. (Some time ago, I made a crostata with plums and a fromage blanc cream covering the fruit.) I went with the first one.

The chosen recipe was intriguing for two reasons:

it used a yeasted dough for the base, something quite different from the crumbly pasta frolla we use in Italy to make crostata, and

it called for just fruit as topping, something quite appealing to my unsweet tooth.

I am always a bit worried when I try a yeasted recipe from an unverified source: this one worked out fine, after I made a few adjustments and, most importantly, applied the conversion from fresh to instant yeast. In this file, the recipe mentions yeast, which I interpreted to mean fresh yeast (lievito di birra). On this page, the amount of yeast is given as "12 g active, dried, yeast," which is an enormous quantity of yeast for 250 g of flour and so an obvious mistake. So you see why I am wary of anonymous recipes for baked goods? (Also note that the video on the same page does not show the tart of the recipe.)

4.8 g instant yeast [I have a precision scale to weigh small amount of ingredients, like yeast]

40 g sugar

125 ml lukewarm milk

A pinch of sea salt

42 g (3 tablespoons / 1.5 oz.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg

Ingredients for the topping:

A mixture of red and black plums, ripe but firm, enough to cover the surface of the tart; the original recipe calls for Damson plums, which "are relatively small plums with a distinctive, somewhat astringent taste" (source); I went with the California-grown varieties that are available now

Vanilla-flavored powdered sugar, to taste

Sift flours into a bowl and warm it up slightly in the microwave.

Add all the other ingredients to the flour and mix with a wooden or silicone spoon until a smooth dough forms. The dough is soft and sticky. I did not try to knead it by hand, but mixed it well with the spoon. Cover the bowl tightly and let the dough rise for 40 minutes or so (until a dimple made on the dough with your fingertip persists).

the first rendition

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Butter a Pyrex pie plate (9.5-inch / 24 cm diameter). Transfer the dough to the pie plate and flatten it using your hands until it covers the bottom and comes up the sides about one inch (2.5 cm). While this method may not make a perfectly even base for the tart, it is easier and less messy than trying to roll the dough and then transfer it to the pie plate.

Cut each plum into 6-8 pieces, depending on the size. Remove the stone. Distribute the pieces on the dough in a circular pattern covering it all. See the Note below about my experiments with cut side down or up placement.

Place the pie plate in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, then check the tart and gauge the time remaining. Bake until the pastry is cooked through and the surface is light golden (you will be able to check the color around the border). In my case it took 32 minutes. Be careful: you want the tart's bottom of a golden color and not to become brown.

Take the pie plate out of the oven and place on a rack to cool. Sprinkle the tart with powdered sugar before serving.

The slight tart flavor of plums contrasts with the lightly sweet crust. My vanilla ice cream (gelato alla vaniglia), with its creamy texture, goes well with the tart.

unstable equilibrium

Note: The first time I made the tart, I halved the plums and placed them cut side down on the dough. When removing the stone was not easy, I cut the plums into quarters. While this configuration looked nice, when I served the tart, I realized that the halved plums made it difficult to cut the tart neatly, so the second time I made the tart, I cut the fruits into 6-8 pieces.

For this rendition, I used pluots (complex hybrids of plum and apricot with predominantly plum characteristics) and, to match the photo on the Quetschentaart's page, I distributed the fruit pieces cut side up. I ran out of pluots, so for the outermost circle, I used peaches.

a disappointing top over a good base

The result, while pretty, was not good: the baked pluots tasted bitter. I suspect the reason had to do in part with the variety of pluots (whose name unfortunately I don't remember) and the fact that they were a bit soft (rather than firm). I also wondered whether placing the fruit cut side up worsened the situation.

So, for the third rendition, I went back to a mix of red and black plums, ripe but firm, and distributed half of them cut side down and the rest cut side up (see top photo). The panel of tasters assembled around our dining table did not detect an important difference between the fruit placed in different position. However, as you can see from the photo, the powdered sugar that lands on plum skin sticks, while the one that lands on plum flesh tends to be absorbed, so the placement has an impact on the tart's look. Honestly, I love the mixed design, which reminds me of the roofs of a mountain village after a light snow.

In case you are wondering about the fate of rendition number 2, the disappointing one, rest assured I saved what I could. Since the problem was the fruit, I spooned it off. I then cut the base into cubes and used it to make the Vanilla Bean Bread Pudding mentioned in this post instead of bread: the result was lovely.

To use any of the photographs published in the blog permission must be obtained from Simona
No food was (nor will ever be) discarded in the process of taking the photographs, i.e., everything was consumed either immediately or in due time